Quote Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory View Post
Come on Mac, we’ve seen worse players. Djourou, Squillaci, Silvestre, Senderos, Cygan….are we putting Verm in that bracket where they’d most certainly cost us a game? I wouldn’t put him at that level where he can’t even be trusted to play 10 minutes. We’ve seen far worse. Nobodies saying he’s a great player or that he can’t be replaced. I’m just not confident about the player we’ll sign in his place when we’re pushed for time and in a panic. Which is why I say we keep him for one more season. We’ve spent well in this window but I can’t see Wenger splashing money on another defender that’s first team quality. He’ll either go for a veteran, someone young and untested or someone cheap from overseas. That’s what he’s done in the past.
That's exactly what is happening, isn't it? He's often only coming on for a couple of minutes; when he does play meaninful minutes I reckon we probably don't go on to win. I think his influence causes panic in the team, he himself makes reckless errors more than most and I don't see how he can be considered first team quality, when he is not considered by Wenger, clearly to be first team quality.

Personally I take it as good thing that Man Utd and Barcelona are looking to buy our bench players now, not our first team players.